Dawn Of War
by Dominic Trungove
Summary: Just a short story of how the dawn of war games went, and not how the novelists portrayed it.
1. Chapter 1

The orks were overrunning the spaceport. Colonel Brom and his men were facing an endless tide of green death and destruction. There seemed no end to the green tide. Wave after wave of orks came, each wave bringing down more guardsmen. Finally, there were only about twenty left at the main area of the port. And the orks were up close and personal, meaning that number was quickly shrinking. "HOLD THE LINE! IN THE NAME OF THE EMPEROR, YOU WILL NOT FALTER!" Brom roared, barely heard over the screams of the few remaining men and the cries of ecstasy from the orks, as well as the sounds of hacking and slashing. More men fell to the green skins. Soon, there were only three men left, as well as a few others who were locked in combat with the orks. Colonel Brom and two guardsmen were not. "WE CAN'T HOLD! RUN FOR YOUR LIVES!" one guardsmen yelled, and both of the foot soldiers proceeded to. "Cowards." Brom muttered, shooting them both. "You will fight or you will die." he said to the corpses of his cowardly men. then an ork rushed to him and engaged in single combat. He dispatched it, then turned to face the other orks. Just as the orks were about to rush Brom, something miraculous happened. Dark red drop pods screamed from the sky, three in total. They smashed into the ground, crushing several orks, and their doors clanged down, allowing two space marine squads and a captain to disembark and shoot the orks into oblivion. A few orks got into close combat. It was their last ever fight, as they failed to even bring down one marine, and all of them were killed. The captain ran to Brom. "I am captain Gabriel Angelos of the Blood Ravens Third Company. Status!" he said. "Forgive me, my lord." Brom replied. "We have done all we could to stop the orks, but we have failed. My mens lives are yours, now." "You stood your ground in the gface of the emperors foes," Gabriel said. "You have done your duty. If your men have failed you, I will leave their judgement in your hands." "Thank you, my lord!" Brom said. "I am not here for your thanks! This port must be held if we are to maintain troops and supply lines to the planets surface. That is why we are here. Now, what of the wounded and civilians?" "Stranded. We have few ships." "Then you shall have more!" he said. Then he spoke to a soldier. "All Blood Raven flights, execute protocol 23 and initiate civilian evacuation. We will dispatch the ground forces." "Yes, my lord." the marine replied. The soldier then relayed the captains instructions to the Blood Raven ships in orbit via vox. "Ground forces, my lord? But the orks have retreated!" "You must know your enemy to defeat them, Colonel. Orks only retreat to regroup. They will keep coming until you, or they, are dead." as he spoke, two more drop pods came down, carrying two servitors. The builders quickly ran to a suitable spot nearby and began construction of a stronghold. A thunderhawk gunship flew overhead and dropped the half built structure onto the ground. Then Gabriel ran to the builders and soldiers. "Brothers! Let us destroy this alien filth!" he roared.


	2. Chapter 2

The servitors had just finished construction of a stronghold, and were now working on a chapel barracks, which would be followed by an armoury and a few plasma generators. In the meantime, Gabriel Angelos and his two squads of tactical marines cautiously scouted out the surrounding area, taking three strategic points to allow the resources to call down more space marine squads. After capturing the nearest three, he ordered the srvitors to build listening posts on them after the generators were finished. When all was done, he gathered his men. "Men! Now, we move to eliminate the ork plague! To the east!" and he and the two space marine squads marched towards the east. Suddenly, something caught Gabriels' eye. "Look! An ork camp!" he said to his men, who had grabbed some heavy bolters from the armoury before moving out. The 19 space marines, four of which wielded heavy bolters and one of which was the captain, moved slowly and silently towards the camp, consisting of a boyz hut and a few Waaaagh! banners. One man with a heavy bolter stopped. "Sir. Permission to neutralize target?" he asked, indicating the nearest structure, which was a Waaaagh! banner. "Permission granted." the marine took careful aim, then squeezed the trigger. And absurd amoun of fist sized bolts suddenly burst from the guns barrel, making a ginormous noise and alerting the orks in the camp to the attack. "WAAAAAAAGH!" one yelled, just before a Waaaagh! banner collapsed on him from the bolts which had all exploded on contact with the wooden structure. The orks charged, yelling their battlecry, as more and more sprang from the hut, and the gunners on the remaining Waaaaagh! banners and the boyz hut opened fire. All of the marines, including four heavy bolters, one bolt pistol and fourteen boltguns opened fire on the charging horde of greenskins. Orks died in droves to the explosive rounds, each one uttering a short cry of pain before being brutally cut down by the explosive rounds. After all the orks were dead, the marines turned their guns on the bulidings, making short work of them. But in the frantic combat, two marines had fallen, one of which carried a heavy bolter. "Look. A breach in the space ports walls!" Gabriel said. "The orks must have blasted their way through! We must continue to search for more ork camps and destroy them all, pushing this alien filth from the space port. But for that, we will need more men. Back to the chapel barracks, so we may replace our losses and call down another space marine squad!" he said to his men, who obeyed without question. After a few minutes, the force had gone from seventeen men to twenty-eight, six of which wielded the heavy bolters. "We will show those orks what true firepower is about. Back to the breach!" Gabriel said, and the twenty eight space marines ran to the breach in the walls, when suddenly Gabriel stopped. "I can hear gunshots." he said, noticing for the first time the sounds of lasguns and ork rounds firing. Soon, this stopped, replaced by the swriling sound of a melee. "Quick, men! To the fight!" the space marines charged towards the sounds, soon spotting a large number of orks and imperial guard. "Those guardsmen look like they could use some help." Gabriel said. "Brothers! Purge the greenskins!" and then, twenty eight gun barrels locked onto the orks, unaware of their impending doom.

The roaring sound of boltguns and heavy bolters singing their dreadful songs suddenly flared up. For all of the orks, it was the last thing they ever heard, and for some of the guardsmen who were accidentally shot in the swirling combat. The few surviving guardsmen suddenly stood to attention, their backs stiff. "Our prayers have been answered! Here come the space marines!" a sergeant yelled, looking at the adeptus astartes as they passed by, ignoring the guardsmen and intent on hunting and destroying their prey. The tables had turned.

Gabriels keen eyes searched the battlefield until he saw it. Another ork camp. And next to it, two squads of dwindling guardsmen, locked in combat with the orks and surrounded by an ever increasing pile of corpses. The bolter rounds echoed around the space port as this ork camp and its denizens were wiped out, unaware of the vengeful blood ravens. The few remaining guardsmen saluted. One yelled "We are the Imperial Guard! It is time we started acting like it!" Gabriel nodded at those words, acknowledging every last ounce of truth in them. Then his men were off again, knowing there were probably about two more ork camps left. Within minutes, they had found the former of the two, and destroyed it, with their first loss since the first ork camp, consisting of one boltgun armed marine who had foolishly decided to charge into close combat with an ork nob. But the marines had no time to mourn, as not one hundred meters away they heard the sound of a cannon firing and the sound of eager orks charging. They turned, and in the distance they saw a Leman Russ battle tank firing at a horde of ork boyz. The space marines charged and annihilated the orks alongside the tank. Suddenly, the access hatch on the top opened and the tank commander emerged. "You have our thanks. In gratitude, I and my crew will assist you in eliminating the orks. They have four camps. Have you destroyed any?" "We have eliminated three." Gabriel replied, and the tank commander smiled. "Then the battle is almost won." he went back into his tank and closed the hatch, waiting for the space marines to move onto the next camp, as he had revealed its location to them. They set off, the tank in hot pursuit.

The final ork camp consisted of five Waaagh! banners, three boyz huts and a settlement. This one would be a tougher nut to crack than the previous three, as four times as many orks were in this camp. But this time, the space marines had a Leman Russ to back them up. The orks were in serious trouble. The space marines charged, one battlecry in all of their throats. "FOR THE EMPEROR!" and the orks charged, crying theirs. The Leman Russ provided heavy artillery fire to support the marines, and had it not been there then the space marines would have surely fallen. As it was, five fell to the guns of the orks and their buildings, and a further four were caught in a melee, being killed. But finally, the orks had been pushed from the space port, and all of their structures had been destroyed, and almost all of their soldiers were dead, only a few remained, still fighting desperately against the wrathful marines. The battle was won.


End file.
